9.4: Editing Photographs Digitally

Last updated
Save as PDF

Page ID: 306535

Mark Briggs
University of South Florida

$ \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } $

$ \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} $

$ \newcommand{\dsum}{\displaystyle\sum\limits} $

$ \newcommand{\dint}{\displaystyle\int\limits} $

$ \newcommand{\dlim}{\displaystyle\lim\limits} $

$ \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}$ $ \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}$

( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) $ \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}$

$ \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}$ $ \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}$

$ \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}$ $ \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}$

$ \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}$

$ \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}$

$ \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}$

$ \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}$

$ \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}$

$ \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}$

$ \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}$

$ \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}$

$ \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}$

$ \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}$

$ \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}$

$ \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}$ $ \newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}$

$ \newcommand{\vectorA}[1]{\vec{#1}} % arrow$

$ \newcommand{\vectorAt}[1]{\vec{\text{#1}}} % arrow$

$ \newcommand{\vectorB}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } $

$ \newcommand{\vectorC}[1]{\textbf{#1}} $

$ \newcommand{\vectorD}[1]{\overrightarrow{#1}} $

$ \newcommand{\vectorDt}[1]{\overrightarrow{\text{#1}}} $

$ \newcommand{\vectE}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{\mathbf {#1}}}} $

$ \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } $

$ \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} $

$\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}$ $\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}$ $\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}$ $\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}$ $\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}$ $\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}$ $\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}$ $\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}$ $\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}$ $\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}$ $\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}$ $\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}$ $\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}$ $\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}$ $\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}$ $\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}$ $\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}$ $\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}$ $\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}$ $\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}$ $\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}$ $\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}$ $\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}$ $\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}$ $\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}$ $\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}$ $\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}$ $\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}$ $\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}$ $\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}$ $\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}$ $\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}$ $\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}$ $\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}$ $\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}$ $\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}$ $\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}$ $\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}$ $\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}$ $\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}$ $\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}$ $\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}$ $\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}$ $\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}$ $\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}$ $\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}$ $\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}$ $\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}$ $\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}$ $\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}$ $\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}$ $\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}$ $\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}$ $\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}$ $\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}$ $\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}$ $\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}$ $\newcommand{\lt}{<}$ $\newcommand{\gt}{>}$ $\newcommand{\amp}{&}$ $\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}$

There are many software programs that will make editing digital photographs easy. No matter which program you use, it’s a good idea to follow a few simple steps:

Only edit a copy of the photo — not the original. When you open a photo in an editing program, do a “Save As” and change the file name by at least one character. This will give you an exact copy of the original just in case your editing goes awry.
Crop the photo. Few, if any, photos are perfectly composed when the image is made by the camera. Use the program’s cropping tool to omit unnecessary information in the photograph. Cropping a photo should answer the question: What’s the most important information of the photo?

If you right-click or control-click on any Web site image, you will see this drop-down menu, allowing you to save the image to your computer or view the properties to see how large it is in pixels.

Resize the picture. If you are posting a picture to a blog, for example, all you need is a small, low-resolution image. Not sure how big? To find out how many pixels wide to make your photo, find a photo that is about the target size somewhere on the Web. Right-click (or control-click if you use a Mac) and select Properties. A pop-up box will display the measurements of the image in pixels.

Software programs

Whether you work on a Windows computer or a Mac, you should have a basic photo editing program installed already. You can learn how to use those programs to perform the most basic operations with the following tips.

If you want to get more serious about photo editing, check out:

Photoshop: The professional industry standard ($649).
Photoshop Elements: A stripped-down version for non-professionals ($89).
GIMP: A free, open-source program designed to operate like Photoshop.

As simple as it gets: If all you need is to crop or resize a photo, try the online service at snipshot.com. It only takes a few moments to upload a photo and crop it down to the part you really need.

Microsoft Photo Editor

Open a photo.
To crop, use the select tool (the dotted line rectangle). Drag on the image until you have omitted the areas that aren’t necessary. Select Crop under the Image menu at the top. When presented with a complex box with lots of measurements, ignore it and click OK.
To resize, select Resize under the Image menu. In the pop-up box, change the unit of measurement to pixels and enter the desired width. Click OK.

To compress the image for display on a Web site or blog:

Choose Save As… under the File menu at the top.
Select More>> in the lower left of the pop-up box.
Slide the arrow on the “JPEG quality factor” toward Smaller file/lower quality. Depending on the resolution in the image, you may be able to go all the way down to 10 on the 1-100 scale. (You’ll need to experiment with this setting.) Basically, what you’re trying to do is squeeze the image as much as possible without affecting the quality. So as long as you don’t see a noticeable change in the picture (blurriness, pixelation, jagged lines), keep dialing down on the quality.

Microsoft Office Picture Manager

Microsoft Photo Editor has recently been discontinued as a component of Microsoft Office, although many newsrooms still have Photo Editor software available. Replacing it is Microsoft Office Picture Manager.

The Web photo editing functions for both programs remain similar, though the Photo Editor menu items — Crop, Resize, Save As — are now found in a new place.

In Picture Manager the editing tools — now called Crop, Resize, Compress, and Export — are found in a separate dropdown menu accessed from a special menu tab labeled Edit Picture. The Compress menu is a shortcut to reduce image resolution to 72 pixels per inch and scale the image size to fit in a 448 pixel x 336 pixel window.

iPhoto for the Mac

Select a photo by double clicking on it.
If you don’t see a group of tools on the bottom of the screen (like “Rotate,” “Crop,” “Enhance”) click Edit on the bottom panel and a new group of tools will appear.
To crop, select the crop button and a border will appear on the photo. Drag the sides, top and bottom in toward the center of the image until you have omitted the areas that aren’t necessary. Hit enter or return.

The Red-Eye function works easily; select the tool, and then click each red eye with the wand.
Click Done.

To resize and compress the image for display on a Web site or blog, choose Export under the File menu at the top. Select “scale images no larger than” and enter the desired width in pixels. Click export and save the compressed image to your desktop (or other desired location).

Search

Text Color

Text Size

Margin Size

Font Type